The present invention relates to a multimedia client and server is particularly concerned with allowing selection of desired multimedia.
It is known within internetworking arrangements to provide multimedia services from servers to clients. Various Internet standards track protocols address both unicast and multicast streaming of audio-video data from servers to clients. The advantages of multicasting are well known. For example, a live news conference can be streamed to hundreds of viewers using multicasting to minimize the bandwidth needed to convey the data from the server to the clients by sending only a single stream of data over common links. Thus, multicasting of audio and video data or multimedia data enhances the capability of servers to provide a variety of multimedia to end-users. However there is a need to effectively use this capability. For example, when video streams are chosen by selecting from lists or still pictures the end user may, once viewing the video stream, realize that the material is not what was desired. A more effective way of selecting such multimedia is needed to reduce the impact on the networks caused by initiating and then prematurely stopping the multicast stream to a particular client or clients.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved multimedia client and server.
According to the present invention, a server provides a channel for previewing multimedia and a plurality of full screen multimedia channels; and a client displays plural preview screens at a lower rate and using less bandwidth than the full screen, almost full frame rate, higher quality multicast single stream channel. Selection of a particular one of the plural preview screens at the client signals the server of the desired channel. The server then records the time of streaming of the desired channel to the client.
Conveniently, the preview screen and full screen displays may be implemented by one of two methods. In the first method, a plurality of multicast streams is sent out into the network to a predetermined multicast address. In a first method, the preview screen is derived, by the client, from the plurality of multicast streams. In the second method, a separate preview channel is sent to a client, via unicast, at a lower frame rate than the multicast channel.
Preferably the multimedia channels are Internet Protocol multicast channels.
Advantages of the present invention include providing a client with a more intuitive user interface and a server with a capability of monitoring client selection and usage of available full screen multicast streams. This allows the service to track highly viewed content thereby allowing better tuning or targeting of what to stream to customers; remove less played streams and direct content to the right audience.